San Diego’s influential post-hardcore all-stars Hot Snakes – boasting members of Pitchfork, Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Earthless, Obits, Burning Brides, OFF!, The Delta 72, and more – released three of our favorite rock records of the past 20 years: Automatic Midnight, Suicide Invoice, and Audit in Progress. All three were originally released on Swami Records, with art by singer/guitarist and visual artist Rick Froberg. And now, finally, they’re ours! As we await the somewhat-later- in-2018 release of their first new album since 2004, please make these Sub Pop reissues yours.
Audit in Progress is their third studio album, originally released in 2004. The band recorded the album with new drummer Mario Rubalcaba at San Diego’s Big Fish Recording with engineer Ben Moore. An increased attraction to dissonance surfaced on Audit in Progress. The album was well-received by critics and fans and was named “best punk album” at the 2005 San Diego Music Awards. More shows were played and enjoyed and the band visited many cities all over the world. By 2005, the band spiraled into a mid-life punk crisis and stopped performing. Lucky for all of us here in the present, Hot Snakes are charging back, renewed, recording new music and playing shows with both drummers, and planning for the release of a new album in 2018 on Sub Pop Records.